Isabella Norwood Hammet

Isabella Norwood Hammet, usually remembered locally as “Belle” Heth, was born in 1842 into the Hammet-Craig family, which controlled a large share of the land east of Connelly’s Run in what became Central Depot/East Radford, Virginia. She married Captain Beverley Stockton Heth in October 1867. Her historical importance lies less in a separately documented public career than in her position as a landholding daughter, wife, donor, and hereditary link connecting the Hammet, Heth, Tyler, Radford, and Wharton families during Radford’s transformation from river settlement to railroad town and then to city.

Stockton and Isabella Heth gave a school lot in 1876; the town’s later academy was built on land contributed by the Heths and named Belle Heth Academy in her honor, and their former property at Heth’s Grove became the site of the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Radford in 1910, which evolved to Radford University’s main campus. In other words, her legacy is materially embedded in Radford’s educational and civic geography.

Image courtesy of Virginia Tech Special Collections